Ed Wilson with Dynastes
hercules
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Ed Wilson was a Professor and
Curator of Entomology at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at
Harvard University. Ed was one of the finest scholars and
naturalists, and he was one of the world's leading authorities
on ants. Ed was first and foremost an ant man, but as the accompanying
photo shows, he had a profound admiration for scarab beetles
also. He visited Team Scarab at Nebraska in 1998 and was made
an honorary scarab worker.
With fellow entomologist Bert
Holldobler, Ed had written the definitive volume on ants, which
won the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction. He also won an
earlier Pulitzer in 1979 for his book entitled "On Human
Nature." Ed was the recipient of the National Medal of Science,
the International Prize for Biology, the gold medal of the World
Wildlife Fund, the Distinguished Humanist Award from the American
Humanist Association, and the Crafoord Prize from the Swedish
Academy of Sciences (which is ecology's approximation of the
Nobel prize).
In his books, "The Diversity
of Life," "Biophilia," and "The Naturalist,"
he sounded a powerful alarm about the calamitous loss of species
diversity that is already ongoing today. The increasing loss
of biodiversity is a direct result of human activities . . .
and yet relatively little is being done by people or governments
to prevent this catastrophic destruction of our natural heritage.
Ed's deep insights into these global problems are a clarion
call to all of us to take action in our private and public lives
to avert the destabilization of entire ecosystems and the tremendous
loss of our fellow beings on the planet. |
